Exploration and production of petroleum, including oil and gas, requires the use of drilling rigs to drill wells deep in subterranean formations. These wells are expensive to both drill and operate. A typical operating drilling rig includes a substructure, a drill floor, and a vertical mast with a crown mounted thereon. The mast typically has a travelling block reeved with wire rope from a drawworks to the crown, enabling the travelling block to be raised and lowered. A top drive is connected to the block for drilling the well. The drill floor typically includes the drawworks, an automated roughneck, and a rotary table with a bowl to accept manual or automated slips for the securing and holding of tubulars.
Advancements in technology have permitted deeper wells, which in turn have resulted in a need to have drill floors be higher above the ground in order to accommodate larger and more complex equipment, such as blow-out preventers (BOPs) with more cavities and rotating BOPs. Introducing large components, such as a column racker, to the high drill floors during rig setup can be challenging. Column rackers present particular challenges because they may bend if care is not taken when moving a full length column racker from a horizontal position to a vertical position. Because of this, conventional column rackers are introduced to a drill floor using one of two techniques. In a first technique, the column racker is introduced to the drill floor in an unassembled configuration. For example, smaller length segments are introduced to the drill floor, and then the segments are joined to form a single column racker in a vertical condition. In a second technique, the column racker is assembled in a horizontal condition, and two cranes hoist the column racker from the ground and carefully tip the column racker from a substantially horizontal condition to a more vertical condition, and the column racker is then introduced onto the rig floor by the cranes. Due to its length and size, and the need to avoid any inelastic bend of the column racker, placing an assembled column racker onto a rig can be a slow and challenging endeavor. Further, some drill sites are in areas that make crane transport and setup difficult.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.